Daily Recap — May 10

Let’s throw it back to a time when Democrats liked America! Good luck finding that year on your time machine dial.

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ISIS BECOMING WAS-WAS

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DJT promised to wipe ISIS off the face of the Earth and I’ll be damned if he isn’t following through.

At least five senior ISIS goathumpers have been captured in a three-month operation by Iraqi and American intelligence that involved phone apps and the breaking of secret bank accounts and communication codes.

Ahhhhhh…..I really miss the agency on days like this.

The captures were announced today on Iraqi state TV, which broadcast images of four of the detainees wearing their nifty yellow prisoner jumpsuits.

DJT got straight to the point in a tweet following the news, saying only that “Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured.”

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The Failing New York Times, citing two unidentified Iraqi officials, reported that the five included Ismail Alwaan al-Ithawi, who is described as a top aide to ISIS head honcho Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who’s been on the run since declaring his caliphate in 2014.

The report said Ithawi had been tracked by Iraqi intelligence to the Turkish city of Sakarya, where he was living under his brother’s identity. Turkish security forces arrested him on Feb. 15 (Anna’s birthday!) and extradited him to Iraq.

After weeks of interrogation, Ithawi was persuaded to contact several of his ISIS buddies and lure them across the border into the warm, receptive embrace of our special operators.

Iraqi agents used the Telegram messaging app on Ithawi’s mobile phone to draw the others into the trap.

Also arrested were Saddam al-Jammel, a Syrian who had governed ISIS territory around Deir al-Zour, and Abu Abdel al-Haq, an Iraqi who had been the head of internal security for ISIS. Not the most happenin’ job to have these days.

Syrian jihadist Mohamed al-Qadeer, and two Iraqis, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai, were also captured.

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Following Ithawi’s capture, Iraqi and American intelligence agents were able to uncover bank accounts used by the group and secret communication codes he used.

“The noose is tightening around him,” an Iraqi military spokesman said, referring to Baghdadi.

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BIG PICTURE:

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That’s right folks. Rocket Man is bending the knee, Iran has been put #OnNotice and now DJT is about to reel the top goathumper. Not a bad month’s work.

When high-ranking combatants begin getting swept up in chunks like this, it means we’re getting close to the big dog. It only takes the right actionable intel from one of these guys, be it given voluntarily or otherwise. The info will come, let there be no doubt. We’re in their huddle now.

LOL…..the coochie caps just can’t catch a break these days.

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HASSELIN’ HASPEL

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Dims took a break from slandering a career combat surgeon this week to focus their hate laser on a woman who was too mean to terrorists after 9/11.

Gina Haspel appeared before the Swamp of the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday to make her case as to why she should be the next CIA director to replace Mike Pompeo.

Ever since her nomination was announced, all anyone can talk about is the three friggin high-ranking Al-Qaeda operatives who were waterboarded as part of the enhanced interrogation program under George Dubya Bush.

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Never mind that the entire Congress not only were made aware of the program, but personally authorized it. Now, all of a sudden, these same hypocrites who eagerly signed off on waterboarding when they were terrified of a pending dirty bomb attack have managed to find a moral high ground. Where, exactly, I have no idea, but they’re on it.

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Then we have our old buddy Cooter McCain, who (predictably) declared his opposition to Haspel, saying that her “refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” He, of course, is referring to questioning from Sen. Kamala Harris, who tried to force Haspel to call everyone involved in the “torture” program immoral. Cooter never heard a Dim talking point he didn’t love and this is just the latest to catch his eye.

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All of this means we have some analysis to do (yippee!).

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Republicans hold a very slim — 51 to 49 — majority in the Senate, and with little person Rand Paul saying he’ll join Cooter in voting against her nomination, Haspel will need the votes of at least a few Dims to get confirmed, though that exact number depends largely on if any additional Republicans choose to screw over Trump, which is entirely possible.

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So far, only one Dim — Joe Manchin of West Virginia — has said he’ll back Haspel, but Republicans are targeting Democratic members up for re-election in states DJT won in 2016.

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Here’s a look at the vote count so far:

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DIMS VOTING YES OR LIKELY VOTING YES:

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Sen. Joe Manchin (West Virginia)

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DIMS UNDECIDED:

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Sen. Claire McCaskill (Missouri)

Sen. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii)

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota)

Sen. Bob Menendez (New Jersey)

Sen. Joe Donnelly (Indiana)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vermont)

Sen. Patty Murray (Washington)

Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois)

Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island)

Cryin’ Chuck Schumer (New York)

Sen. Bill Nelson (Florida)

Sen. Tom Carper (Delaware)

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Michigan)

Sen. Ben Cardin (Maryland)

Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island)

Sen. Tom Udall (New Mexico)

Sen. Chris Murphy (Connecticut)

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)

Sen. Mark Warner (Virginia)

Sen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon)

Sen. Michael Bennet (Colorado)

Sen. Tina Smith (Minnesota)

Sen. Chris Coons (Delaware)

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut)

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin)

Sen. Doug Jones (Alabama)

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada)

Sen. Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire)

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Maryland)

Sen. Gary Peters (Michigan)

Sen. Cory Booker (New Jersey)

Sen. Tim Kaine (Virginia)

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DIMS VOTING NO OR ALMOST CERTAINLY VOTING NO:

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Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon)

Sen. Maria Cantwell (Washington)

Sen. Jon Tester (Montana)

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Illinois)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (California)

Sen. Martin Heinrich (New Mexico)

#CrazyBernie (Vermont)

Pocohantas Warren (Massachusetts)

Sen. Ed Markey (Massachusetts)

Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii)

Sen. Bob Casey (Pennsylvania)

Sen. Kamala Harris (California)

Sen. Angus King (Maine)

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (New York)

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REPUBLICANS VOTING YES OR LIKELY VOTING YES:

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Sen. Tom Cotton (Arkansas)

Sen. Roy Blunt (Missouri)

Sen. Bill Cassidy (Louisiana)

Sen. Roger Wicker (Mississippi)

Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho)

Sen. Dan Sullivan (Alaska)

Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas)

Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)

Sen. Twinkletoes Graham (Classified)

Sen. Thom Tillis (North Carolina)

Sen. Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)

Sen. Ron Johnson (Wisconsin)

Sen. Deb Fischer (Nebraska)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)

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REPUBLICANS VOTING NO OR LIKELY VOTING NO:

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Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky)

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LIKELY NOT VOTING:

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Cooter McCain, but he would vote no if he were there.

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REPUBLICANS UNDECIDED:

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There really shouldn’t be this much damn indecision, but here we are nonetheless.

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Sen. Jeff Snowflake (Arizona)

Sen. Cory Gardner (Colorado)

Sen. Johnny Isakson (Georgia)

Sen. David Perdue (Georgia)

Sen. Todd Young (Indiana)

Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa)

Sen. Jerry Moran (Kansas)

Sen. Pat Roberts (Kansas)

Sen. Steve Daines (Montana)

Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio)

Sen. James Lankford (Oklahoma)

Sen. Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

Sen. John Thune (South Dakota)

Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tennessee)

Sen. Liddle Bob Corker (Tennessee)

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

Sen. Mike Lee (Utah)

Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah)

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia)

Sen. Richard Shelby (Alabama)

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)

Sen. John Thune (South Dakota)

Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming)

Sen. Mike Enzi (Wyoming)

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi)

Sen. Jim Risch (Idaho)

Sen. John Boozman (Arkansas)

Sen. John Hoeven (North Dakota)

Sen. Dean Heller (Nevada)

Sen. TIm Scott (South Carolina)

Sen. Mike Rounds (South Dakota)

Sen. Richard Burr (North Carolina)

Sen. Ben Sasse (Nebraska)

Sen. John Kennedy (Louisiana)

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BIG PICTURE:

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Haspel has an uphill climb, but not an insurmountable one. I believe Claire McCaskill is likely to join Manchin in the “yes” column for Dims along with Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, which would give us the votes needed. But that’s assuming we don’t have any further attrition in the GOP.

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Right now I’d say it’s 60/40 that she gets confirmed, but that number could change pending backroom deals between now and tomorrow.

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Stay tuned, folks. Could get interesting.

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And what a sad commentary on Congress that is.

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IT’S A DATE

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After all the sound (or is fire?) and fury over the last year, DJT and Lil Rocket Man finally have a concrete time and place to hash this nuclear thing out.

“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th,” he tweeted. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”

They’ve come a long way since the button comparisons.

The place and time are certainly no coincidence, as there’s an international security conference planned for the same location just a week before the summit. DJT hopes to use that conference to set the stage for the big show with Kim, as well as shore up international support against the Kim regime should he try to get cute.

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The announcement capped off weeks of negotiations over the date and location for the talks that began in early March, when DJT first accepted Kim’s invitation to meet.

Trump has previously suggested the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas would be best, but his advisers urged him to stage the talks in a neutral third country.

Singapore was always a prime candidate since it maintains diplomatic relations with both the U.S. and North Korea.

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DJT has sought to keep Rocket Man off-balance ahead of the talks, suggesting that he could call them off if Pyongyang takes any steps toward ramping up nuclear activity.

“Everything can be scuttled. Lot of things can happen. A lot of good things can happen, a lot of bad things can happen. I believe that we have — both sides want to negotiate a deal,” he told reporters yesterday.

He revealed the details of the meeting after North Korea released three American detainees who were imprisoned there on obviously politically motivated charges.

Trump met the three men early this morning on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews outside of D.C. and suggested their release could pave the way toward an agreement on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

He told reporters “it’s a great honor” to have the men back on U.S. soil, but said, “The true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.”

See? He can be presidential.

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The Korea story will likely fade into the background for the next few weeks until the summit takes place. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to look for.

Pay close attention to China between now and June 12. If they begin to reverse their newfound respect for our country and behave belligerently on the world stage, there is a good chance that they and Rocket Man have something up their sleeves.

If they continue to push strict banking sanctions against the Kim regime, we’re in good shape. But if they revert to their old ways, it will be because they’re seeking an adversarial relationship with the U.S. and plan to use North Korea to that end.

It would be catastrophic for the world were that to be the case, but it can’t be ruled out.

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for anything and everything of note. This is where your RNR subscription really pays for itself.

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MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR FOOD STAMPS

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For decades, Republicans have talked a big game about entitlement reform and becoming fiscally responsible. As we saw with the omnibus bill earlier this year, though, all that talk is hot air at best and malicious lying at worst.

Welp, next week they’ll have a chance to prove me wrong.

In a few days, the House will vote on a GOP farm bill that would impose tougher work requirements on food stamp recipients.

The revamp of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is considered a legacy item for Paul Rino, who has sought to enact welfare reform as part of his “Better Way” agenda.

The farm bill includes language that would tighten the work requirements for millions of food stamp recipients and shift more federal funding toward job training.

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.The legislation, which Republican leaders whipped this week, authorizes a number of farm and agricultural programs. But the bulk of the bill’s funding goes toward SNAP, which provides assistance to low-income individuals and families.

“This important bill will re-authorize farm and nutrition assistance programs for five years, while making reforms to modernizing key programs and better support rural America,” Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) said on the House floor today.

Under the measure, all able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 59 have to be working or enrolled in a training program for at least 20 hours per week in order to qualify for food stamps. People who are elderly, disabled or pregnant would be exempt from the requirements.

Seems pretty common sense, right? Unfortunately, we all know what happens to common sense ideas in D.C.

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The thinking is that this will help lift people out of poverty and get welfare recipients back on their feet. But as always, the GOP conference is divided, with RINOs worried the requirements are too tough and actual conservatives worried the changes don’t go far enough.

CAN’T YOU PEOPLE CHANNEL YOUR INNER GOLDILOCKS FOR ONCE AND FIND THE PORRIDGE THAT’S JUST RIGHT?! Good lord.

Dims, meanwhile, have blasted the legislation (shocker!) as nothing more than a messaging bill, noting that it stands little chance of passing the Senate. Dims walked away from the normally bipartisan farm bill process when Republicans decided to include the SNAP revamp, which they say will OMG STARVE THE CHILDREN.

“We will be spinning our wheels to send an ideological message to constituents who want to undercut the ability to ensure that people have food that are hungry,” said Dim whip Steny Hoyer (MD).

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SNAP isn’t the only issue in the bill causing food fights on the Hill.

Battles are sure to be had over the federal sugar subsidy program, which is authorized by the farm bill and is routinely a fight that cuts across party lines.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), a member of the Rules Committee, is pushing for an amendment to reform the sugar program by ensuring taxpayers don’t foot the bill for bailouts of the sugar industry, among other things. The idea has gained some steam among conservatives.

But Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, is fiercely pushing back against the amendment, which he warned would be a poison pill if it gets adopted. Yoho was making the rounds today during floor votes to encourage other Republicans to oppose the provision.

“We prefer they don’t support it, because if they do, it throws the farm bill in jeopardy,” Yoho said.

It’s likely a moot point, since Paul Rino doesn’t want to include anything that will jeopardize the bill’s passage in the House. This is his baby. The Foxx amendment is unlikely to even get a vote.

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SO WHAT WILL ULTIMATELY HAPPEN?

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And as much as it pains me to say this, the Dims are likely correct. Even if the bill manages to pass the House, which is a pretty good possibility, it faces a much harder climb in the Senate.

The reason is the same as always, as we just discussed. If the bill becomes too conservative, the RINOs panic and jump ship. But if the RINOs get their way, it’s basically turned into a commie bill and no conservative can support it.

So it’s a matter of finding that sweet spot that brings enough of everyone to the table, which is damn near impossible. If I had to bet, I’d say the farm bill stands very little chance of making it to DJT’s desk.

Just another day in the Swamp, folks. Ain’t it grand?

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There it is, homeskillet. You know the drill: questions, comments, concerns, memes, insults, compliments, stickers, jokes, emojis and, if we have time, complaints.

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